Islamabad United win by 6 wickets | Islamabad United vs Peshawar Zalmi PSL 8. For eight years,United have been playing this kind of match, and when it works, no other team can quite match their explosiveness. It finally clicked today, with United scoring the required 157 runs in just 15 overs after eliminating Peshawar Zalmi by six wickets. Returning to the team, Hasan Ali was the star bowler, taking three crucial top order wickets to halt Zalmi’s momentum. Then, with the bat, Rahmanullah Gurbaz stole the show. With a 62 off 31 balls, United reached 80 in six overs, the highest Powerplay score at this year’s PSL.
Zalmi were the only team to win for the first six overs after United won the toss and bowled. When Mohammad Haris and Babar Azam attacked with the new ball, they smashed Hasan for 17 in his first over. There was no sign that Hasan’s day would improve. Babar’s silky elegance and Haris’ raw power were in stark contrast for six overs, but their impact on run scoring was strikingly similar. Haris had scored 35 runs from 17 deliveries when the fielding restrictions ended, while Babar had scored 34 runs from 19 deliveries.
Shadab took out Haris in the first round, and Mubasir Khan used a flipper to get rid of Saim Ayub. However, Hasan took over after that. In the match-deciding 10th over, Rovman Powell and Tom Kohler-Cadmore had their stumps rocked back with almost identical deliveries. Hasan gave each batter a fresh, savage farewell as they left the field, and United had superbly recovered. Babar was forced to take matters into his own hands after watching the drama unfold from the opposing end when Jimmy Neesham fell in Hasan’s subsequent over.
He accomplished everything he could, but Zalmi needed a power hitter, and Babar isn’t good at that. He tried to find boundaries and field the strike, but he wasn’t able to give his team the big finish they needed against a fearsome batting line-up. The 156 they received at the end felt inadequate.
It was guaranteed by Gurbaz and Rassie van der Dussen. Gurbaz was always looking for boundaries, so there wasn’t much strike rotation. From Zalmi’s perspective, van der Dussen played an even more infuriating innings, manipulating the field skillfully with reverse sweeps and finding the ropes with imperious frequency, while Gurbaz was clearing the fences with raw power. By the time the Powerplay ended, the asking rate was well below one run per ball, and no over in the first six had fewer than 10 runs scored.
For Zalmi, a little sloppiness on the field did not help matters. In the Powerplay, the unfortunate Neesham missed three chances, each of which was horribly difficult. Usman Qadir was the one who finally got rid of Gurbaz, but by that time, he had knocked Zalmi out of the game.
United didn’t back down after the Powerplay, unlike Zalmi. Van der Dussen was consistently filling in the gaps, and Zalmi’s only hope of salvaging himself was Asif Ali’s raw power. Shadab and van der Dussen fell in those middle overs, but one barely noticed in the midst of all the lines.
Azam Khan would hit a massive six over midwicket to cap off a United performance that was so typical of the team they could have copied it.
Watch the Live Streaming PSL 8 || PSL 2023 –
Click Here The Below Button
